Services Marketing: Characteristics, Innovations, and More
While most may have heard of service marketing, the process of bringing a service to market, not everyone realizes that it’s a whole different science from product marketing. In this blog, we will look into the pillars of service marketing, its characteristics, and recent innovations.
Table of Contents
What Is Service Marketing?
Service marketing is all about promoting and selling non-physical products like banking, education, medical treatments, and more. Unlike tangible products, services are experiences that customers pay for but never own. For instance, flying on a plane or getting a haircut are services where customers pay for the experience and not the physical items.
The goal of service marketing is to highlight the value and benefits of these experiences to attract and retain customers. It involves crafting messages, launching the service, and creating a desire for it to generate revenue. In essence, it's about effectively communicating why your service is worth choosing.
Effects of the Right Service Marketing
At Pixel506, we have successfully helped multiple businesses identify opportunities to improve their service marketing efforts to increase customer satisfaction.
Case Study: The Lombardy Hotel, NYC
- Service Focus: Hotel guests purchase an experience—clean, comfortable, and safe accommodations for their stay, not the physical hotel, room, or bed.
- Booking Trends: Most travelers book their rooms online through mobile apps or websites. As a hotel owner, it's crucial to ensure your website appeals to potential guests.
- Pixel506’s Work:
- Website Update: Enhanced The Lombardy Hotel’s website to showcase its unique services, amenities, and local attractions.
- Seamless Booking: Streamlined the online booking process, allowing guests to check rates and book directly without third-party involvement.
- User Experience: Improved navigation and clear, engaging copy to reflect the hotel's personality.
- Call-to-Actions: Incorporated effective CTAs to encourage further engagement with the hotel.
- Digital Marketing: Developed new tools for communication and valuable content for the hotel's website and social media.
- Results:
- Increased brand engagement and direct bookings through the hotel’s website.
- Enhanced user experience, making it easier for visitors to find information and book rooms.
- Although we cannot influence the in-person guest experience, our marketing efforts successfully communicated the hotel’s services, appealing directly to their needs.
What are the characteristics of service marketing?
Service marketing has four distinctive characteristics; intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability.
1. Intangibility
Services are inherently intangible—they cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are bought. This creates challenges for service providers to convey quality and value to potential customers. For example, a hair salon must position itself as professional and personalized, ensuring that its physical environment, staff behavior, and online presence reflect these values.
2. Inseparability
Unlike physical products, services are often produced and consumed simultaneously, making it impossible to separate the service from the service provider. This means the customer’s experience with the service is directly linked to their interaction with the staff and environment. For example, in a restaurant, the quality of service, atmosphere, and location all contribute to the overall dining experience.
3. Variability
Service quality can vary significantly depending on who provides it, when, and where. This variability can lead to inconsistent customer experiences. For instance, the quality of service at an insurance company may differ depending on which staff member handles the claim, as well as their mood, workload, and individual approach to customer care.
4. Perishability
Services cannot be stored for later use; they are perishable. If a service is not used at the time it is available, the opportunity is lost. For example, a hotel room that remains unbooked on a given night cannot be sold later, which is why hotels adjust their pricing and staffing according to demand patterns.
5. Heterogeneity
Due to the human element in service delivery, there is often variation in the performance of services. Even with standardized processes, the individual service experience can differ greatly between customers or even for the same customer over time.
6. Ownership
Customers do not own a service in the way they own a product. When a service is purchased, what is being paid for is access to or use of a resource, experience, or skill, rather than ownership of a tangible object.
7. Service Quality
Service quality is a measure of how well the service delivered matches customer expectations. High service quality ensures customer satisfaction and loyalty, while poor service quality can lead to dissatisfaction and negative word of mouth.
8. Changing Demand
Service demand can be highly volatile and affected by various factors such as seasonality, trends, and economic conditions. Service providers must be adaptable and responsive to these changes to maintain a balance between supply and demand.
9. Services Are Not Owned
Unlike products, services do not result in ownership. Once a service is performed, it cannot be possessed; its value lies in the experience or outcome delivered at the moment of consumption.
4 Innovations in Service Marketing
We define service innovation in digital marketing as the implementation of new strategies and services that differentiates from the previous methods used to create value for customers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses had to change the way they operate, communicate, and deliver their products and services. Now that the pandemic is winding down, some of these innovations in service marketing will stick around.
1.24/7 customer support
Nowadays, customers expect to be able to browse and purchase products and services at all times of the day. Whether they want to order groceries online, schedule a car service appointment, or plan a doctor’s appointment, customers are no longer willing to be restricted to office hours to get help. Businesses that are unable to respond promptly or offer online ordering and booking run the risk of losing customers.
2.Automated customer support
Customer service automation is the process of addressing clients' requests with minimal human-to-human touchpoints. If there is no staff available to speak with customers (before, during, or after office hours), customers expect automated customer support services to assist them. Chatbots, self-service portals, and automated email replies have become commonplace in general customer service and they aren't going anywhere.
3.Cashless and contactless payments
The pandemic has boosted the use of cashless and contactless payments and this trend isn’t going away. When paying for products and services, customers want to be able to complete transactions without having to carry cash or hand over their credit or debit card. Quick touch points using a card or phone are preferred. Cashless and contactless payments are not new but the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the demand for them across industries worldwide.
4.Personalized experiences
Contactless experiences don’t mean the human connection gets lost, instead, it should enhance it. Nowadays, people expect streamlined services and personalized experiences. For example, when checking into a hotel, guests don't want to be treated like they're just another credit card number. Instead, they want to feel that their business is valued, that hoteliers know who they are, and what they like. A HubSpot research shows that personalization helps satisfy consumer expectations and drive repeat sales in almost 93% of customers. The more customized the service, the higher the satisfaction rate.
These four innovations may not exist entirely because of COVID-19, but the pandemic has accelerated them.
Looking for Service Marketing Solutions?
Being in the service industry ourselves, we understand your challenges. Whether you’re in education, hospitality, legal, transportation, or any other industry, we can help you market your services and dominate your competition. You can think of Pixel506 as your own 'internal marketing team,' we may be working remotely but we are always here to help and answer your questions. Our experts know how to create, implement, and manage digital marketing strategies for service companies. Outsourcing your marketing efforts to Pixel506 saves you both time and money and allows you to focus on scaling your business. If you’re looking for an established agency to help you with your marketing efforts, complete our form or contact us at contact us.
More about Pixel506
Pixel506 is a digital innovation agency that helps companies with creative solutions, providing strategy, technology, and digital marketing services. We power UX, marketing, and software development teams to create products and services that boost sales in the digital space. Since 2009, we have helped numerous companies with their product marketing as well as service marketing strategies. We have our roots in Brooklyn, New York, but our nearshoring teams are located in Costa Rica, Colombia, Perú, and Nicaragua. Our team of talented and skilled professionals will help you market your services and grow your client base. Feel free to contact us for more information or to request a quote. We look forward to helping you grow your business with strategic marketing innovations and personalized solutions.
Key Takeaways
- Service marketing is a type of marketing that is used to market a service rather than a product. Differing from product marketing, service marketing is more focused on building relationships and providing value to the customer.
- Service marketing has four distinctive characteristics; intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability.
- Recent innovations in service marketing include 24/7 customer support, automated customer support, cashless and contactless payments, and personalized experiences.
- A professional digital innovation agency, such as Pixel506, can help you market your services and grow your client base.
Do you want more leads? Let's start the process of creating a service marketing strategy that gets real results.